Three Things We Learned From Week 13 in the Sun Belt
Oh what a week it was. One result, mainly one replay official reversal, changed the complexion of the entire Sun Belt, from determining who could be a conference champion to what teams could go to what bowls. About everything that happened in the Fun Belt in Week 13 can be traced back to that one call. It’s like Krazy Karl’s six degrees of separation. Let’s get to it.
They Stopped Getting Away With It!
How do you throw completely change the narrative of an entire league? Well, you have Arkansas State unexpectedly drop their first Sun Belt game in over two calendar years at Louisiana 24-19, that’s how.
The Red Wolves controlled the ball to the tune of 521 yards compared to 292 for the Cajuns, but it was Louisiana who made the big plays when they counted to build a lead. The final drive had A-State try to snatch the victory away, including an insane final play that was originally ruled a touchdown. But replay determined the knee was down.
@ArkStFootball almost won the game on this insanity. @AStateFanRules @Kara_Richey @TheJayBir @fox4espn977 pic.twitter.com/w8P3WNqK5V
— ForgottenBlackLivesMatter (@RememberF5) November 26, 2016
With the Red Wolves’ loss, App State found themselves in a game to clinch a league championship just a few minutes later at New Mexico State. The Mountaineers took care of business 37-7 and claimed, at worst, a share of the Sun Belt Title as their regular season is done. Troy kept up pace as well with a dominating 40-7 win over Texas State.
Arkansas State and Troy can claim their shares of the league title this weekend on the road at Texas State and Georgia Southern, respectively.
The Bowl Picture Just Got Spicy
Another factor of Louisiana’s upset win was that the Cajuns are now 5-6 and one win at ULM away from becoming bowl eligible.
A bowl-eligible Cajun side could rearrange the Sun Belt bowl picture. The top bowl for the league is the New Orleans Bowl, which has hosted Louisiana five of the last six years. Turning down by far the largest Sun Belt crowd they could have in Louisiana would be a tough decision.
After the New Orleans Bowl, the order is Dollar General (Mobile), Camellia (Montgomery), Cure (Orlando) and Arizona (Tuscon). It seems almost certainty that if there’s at least five bowl eligible teams, Idaho will go to the Arizona Bowl. Besides that depends on NOLA. They could take any of the three possible league champs, but we might only have one league champion and there’s no gurantee the Cajuns win at rivals ULM.
The Sun Belt could have anywhere from four to six bowl-eligible teams, the latter including South Alabama as a provisional pick, so they won’t be in the inaugural choice lot thanks to their 38-31 loss at Idaho.
In short, no one knows anything right now.
Coastal Carolina Won’t Be A Pushover
The Chanticleers finished their final FCS season this past weekend with a 26-7 victory over Hampton to finish 10-2 overall. CCU’s only two losses were to Jacksonville State by one point and Charleston Southern in overtime, both FCS Playoff teams.
It was going to be interesting to see how Joe Moglia’s side reacted to no post-season. It heavily effected both App State and Georgia Southern in 2013. However, it seems the Chants are as ready as they can be for the Sun Belt in 2017.
Fun Fact: The Chants had EIGHT different players throw a pass this season, including six different quarterbacks, including 2016 College World Series Champion starting infielder Tyler Chadwick, who was a student coach of the football team in 2015.